Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

Ryuu96 said:

The head of Ukraine's 🇺🇦 state defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom is being replaced. According to a detailed story by Ekonomichna Pravda, the writing has been on the wall for months. Former head Yuriy Gusev has been replaced by Herman Smetanin, head of Kharkiv's Malyshev Plant./1 pic.twitter.com/O50li4MF8A

— Crimson (@CrimsonInquiry) June 26, 2023

The accusations from sources in the article are fairly incriminating:

"Exactly three months after the appointment of Kamyshin as the head of the Ministry of Strategy and Industry, it became known that there was no longer a place for Gusev in the 'working team' of 'defense'." /3

— Crimson (@CrimsonInquiry) June 26, 2023

"Same story with ATGMs. Over the last month, we tripled the production of "Stugn". This is a cool complex, which was simply not produced in normal quantities, although we are at war. And now they are producing, so it was possible," /5 pic.twitter.com/0HxOjueadk

— Crimson (@CrimsonInquiry) June 26, 2023

"There are also no Oplot tanks, which should have become a working base for the Armed Forces alongside Western equipment. They made one, went for a ride on it, told about the purchase for the Armed Forces, but no one even inquired whether we can produce them and when." /7 pic.twitter.com/IyOa38CFhy

— Crimson (@CrimsonInquiry) June 26, 2023

According the piece, this will be the first time since the fall of the USSR that Ukroboronprom will be run by someone with a native defense production background. Smetanin is also notable for his youth: 31 years old at present — after he became the head of Malyshev at 28. /9

— Crimson (@CrimsonInquiry) June 26, 2023

According to Ukrainska Pravda, Zelenskyy has given the new Ukroboronprom head three main tasks:
1) "To increase the production of all weapons"
2) "To cleanse the industry of corruption"
3) "To complete the reform of the defense industry" https://t.co/L1yom9TaWE /11

— Crimson (@CrimsonInquiry) June 26, 2023

Ryuu96 said:

Think it's a pretty cool observation the amount of younger people leading aspects of Ukraine's military/industry.

Probably trying to purge the country of the older soviet thinking.

A big part of this is however also because the Defense production complexes got bombed to smithereens and were thus unusable for much of the year. This is especially true for those in Charkiv, where the T-64, T-84 Oplot and BTR-4 were normally built.